General George S. Patton, one of the most revered, skilled and yet controversial figures in American military lore, reached the coastal city of Messina and secured the liberation of Sicily on this day in history, August 17, 1943. The fall of Messina marked the end of the Sicily Campaign and set the stage for the invasion and liberation of the European mainland in World War II. 

Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini suffered his humiliating downfall and arrest in Rome during the Allied effort to seize the Mediterranean island. Messina's capture was not only a victory for the Allies; it was a personal victory for the famously proud, bombastic Patton. He reached the port city on the northeastern tip of Sicily just hours before his British foil, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.